Jesus in Public and other lessons...

Hello, friends!

I just got finished with our Tuesday afternoon BCM bible study.  It was probably the most fun I had with bible study in quite some time.

Normally it is just Edward and I who do bible studies together on Tuesday afternoons.  Sometimes Shawn will join us.  Sometimes Shamari will too.  Edwin comes every once in a while, which is always nice.  Today, when I texted everyone to remind them about Bible Study, I got responses from Shamari, Shawn, and Edward, so I knew they were going to be there.  I didn't expect the others though.

When we started it was Shawn, Shamari and myself.  Then Shamari saw Jeremy pass by and asked him to join us.  He was more than happy to.  Edward came in a bit and we got started with James 1.  As we were discussing the passage EJ, Candice, Pierre, and one guy whose name I didn't even catch stopped by to say hello.  When they saw that we were doing Bible Study they were a little embarrassed, but we asked them to join us and they were more than happy to!  Our Bible Study that started with 3 finished with 8, which is a pretty solid effort, wouldn't you say?

This is a lesson that I know I knew, but it is always nice to be reminded that following Jesus in public can have some great consequences.  When we follow Jesus in private, we miss the opportunity to have others join us.  I won't go so far as to say that we need to do everything in public.  Jesus talks about the hypocrisy of doing things in public so that you can be seen and commended by others.  I see what we are doing as giving folk an opportunity to follow Jesus in community that they may not know they had.  Hopefully our focus is on bringing folk into the kingdom, not having folk tell us how great we are.

Another lesson that was reiterated to me was how good my BCM students are at invitation.  It didn't take more than a few seconds for folk to invite and see people they knew.  That can absolutely be a huge blessing to the kingdom if we are able to use this power of invitation to invite folk to follow Jesus more and more.

Finally, I was reminded today that many folk in the black community have extensive church background. The passages that we go over usually are nothing new to them and they have opinions on what the verses mean.  The harder part is getting students to apply what they are learning to their lives in a real way.  Many of them have spent so much time reading the Word that I am afraid that the Word has lost some of its power for them.  That is a scary proposition.

Prayer points:
- Please be praying for more Core students in both ACF and BCM.  Right now we have a lot of students who we know and who have some connection to the ministries, but few who are committed and serving members.
- Spring Break is just a few days away.  may students have midterms this week.  Please be praying for peace for them as they prepare and study.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam